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Parents urge delay of boundary changes at listening post

Holly Hines, hhines2@press-citizen.com 8:16 a.m. CDT August 14, 2014

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Residents of the Iowa City Community School District spoke on proposed school boundary changes in the district at a listening post Wednesday in North Liberty.(Photo: Holly Hines/Iowa City Press-Citizen)Buy Photo

A group of residents at an Iowa City School Board listening post in North Liberty on Wednesday said delaying boundary changes in the Iowa City Community School District is their number one priority.

This came during the first school board listening post in a second set of meetings in the district for garnering input from residents on proposed school boundary changes for the 2015-16 school year.

About 40 residents and four school board members attended the listening post, which took place at the North Liberty Community Center.

Proposed boundary changes could affect two clusters of schools in the district. The southeast cluster of changes could affect Twain, Weber, Hills, Lemme, Wood and a small population of students from Longfellow Elementary; and the northwest cluster could affect Kirkwood, Wickham, Coralville Central and Lincoln elementaries.

Several residents at Wednesday's listening post said they want boundary changes to line up with planned new schools and renovations in the district, such as the new Christine Grant Elementary set to open in North Liberty at the intersection of Murphy Court and North Liberty Road in 2019.

Wickham parent Carol Joriman said after the listening post that it doesn't make sense to move students to new schools during an initial set of boundary changes and then move them again when Christine Grant Elementary opens.

"I think just moving people and then waiting a year or two and moving them again is very stressful for families," she said.

Residents also said they're opposed to a boundary change proposal called the "islands" option, which calls for moving groups of students from the Wickham Elementary attendance zone to Kirkwood Elementary, and for moving a group of students from Kirkwood to Wickham, creating "islands" of students at both schools.

The district uses the term "islands" to describe portions of a school's attendance that don't touch any other neighborhoods attending that school.

The district's diversity policy, which calls for balancing the number of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches more evenly throughout the district and which is a factor driving the boundary changes, prohibits creating attendance zone islands.

However, School Board members at a board meeting in May advised administrators to give less weight to diversity policy mandates while creating proposed boundaries.

Jenny Struthers, a Wickham parent, said the "islands" option reflects the fears some community members had about implementing the district's diversity policy.

Struthers said the "islands" proposal calls for excessive busing and that it goes against promises district leaders made to residents when they put the diversity policy in place.

"This islands map is exactly what everyone was afraid of," she said.

Jeevan Menezes, also a Wickham parent at the meeting, said he's frustrated to see the district considering a proposal that would call for "islands" and that community members have already spoken out against creating them.

"It's really getting ridiculous," Menezes said.

Wickham parent Chad Keune said residents already provided input on boundary changes and said it seems like district leaders haven't been listening.

School Board President Chris Lynch said leaders need to determine steps for moving forward and that they need to clarify what values are important in determining how to change attendance zones.

"I agree there's accountability at the end for how this process is played out," Lynch said.

Lynch and board member Brian Kirschling said a variety of options remain on the table when it comes to redistricting.

Board members Patti Fields and Tuyet Dorau also attended the post.

This listening post comes after district administrators released an initial series of boundary maps this spring and garnered input from residents on those maps during community engagement meetings. Officials used this input to create final recommendations, but the School Board rejected these recommendations in May, during the same meeting where they advised leaders to relax the diversity policy.

In July, administrators released a new set of attendance zone maps with inexact boundary lines. These maps included options for Twain and Lincoln to become magnet schools, as well as the "islands" option.

The option for creating a magnet school at Lincoln called for holding off on boundary changes in the northwest cluster until 2019.

This set of proposals also included options for pairing the student bodies of Kirkwood and Wickham elementaries as well as Lincoln and Coralville Central elementaries.

School Board members discussed the newest proposals at a meeting in July and rejected the proposal for creating a magnet school at Lincoln. Board members asked administrators to look into creating a magnet school at Kirkwood or Coralville Central, instead.

However, Superintendent Stephen Murley said Tuesday that administrators would not recommend creating a magnet school at Kirkwood, in part because resulting attendance zone changes could lead to overcrowding of schools in the area.

Reach Holly Hines at hhines2@press-citizen.com or at 887-5414.

If you go

• What: a series of ICCSD School Board listening posts on changing school boundaries